


Outside Any Place I Have Been

by KeeperofSeeds



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel, Marvel (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Cold Weather, Gen, Grief/Mourning, It's Not Paranoia If They're Really Out To Get You, On the Run, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Paranoia, Pre-Avengers (2012), Super Soldier Serum, Survival, Wilderness Survival, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-27
Updated: 2016-03-27
Packaged: 2018-05-29 09:27:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6369259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeeperofSeeds/pseuds/KeeperofSeeds
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Steve thawed out in the twenty-first century but there was no one around to help him acclimate. He wanders from desolate northern outpost to desolate northern outpost, only leaving traces of a rumor of his presence there and becomes more and more disturbed by the increasingly modern towns and then cities he finds. S.H.I.E.L.D., with the help of Tony Stark begin to hunt down the Captain and bring him home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Outside Any Place I Have Been

**Author's Note:**

> The universe picks me up and drops me off without a map. I stand there on a road somewhere outside of any place I have been and just start walking home again."  
> -Jann Arden

Cold.

This is the first thing Steve Rogers feels.

This is a surprise as he hadn’t expected to feel anything for much longer. The plane was going down, he had been saying goodbye to Peggy, bantering, making promises they both knew he couldn’t keep in order to take his mind off the inevitable crash. Which apparently wasn’t as fatal as he had anticipated. Steve cracked an eyelid open and immediately clenched it shut again.

Too bright.

 White light pierced his eyes, sending tiny daggers into his already foggy head. It was probably light reflecting off the snow, he consoled himself. Probably not a concussion. Hopefully not.

 Letting his eyes adjust would take a few moments, depending on how long he’d been out. Obviously he’d crashed on land and with as fast as Skull’s plane had been going… not even his new body could stand up against that kind of abuse. Eyes still clenched shut, Steve begins an inventory of injures: he feels surprisingly well for someone who had crash landed. Moving his limbs was painful, but it was only the numb tingle of frozen limbs, not of broken bones grinding together. The cold would make it harder to assess his condition but nothing felt horrendously out of place. His back felt a bit stiff. No doubt he’d have a few days of bruising to put up with but nothing the serum couldn’t deal with. He had definitely cracked his head on the landing though. A concussion seemed more and more probable the long he was awake. Headache, sensitive to light…that wasn’t good. He didn’t feel nauseous thank goodness, but he wasn’t willing to risk moving yet. He remembered how far away from any kind of civilization he’d been. Hopefully help would arrive soon. He hopes Peggy got his coordinates before he went down. And even if they thought him dead, Steve is pretty sure they wouldn’t abandon him. The Army would come searching for a body at least.

 

He doesn’t know how long he sits in the pilot’s chair just breathing slowly in and out, but eventually the throbbing in his head quiets and the interior of the plane blinks slowly into focus.

No wonder he’s freezing. Snow and ice have blown in the broken and cracked windows and piled up around him. He ups his estimate of how long he’d been out. It must have been at least a few days for this amount of snow to accumulate. And to start melting. He grimaces as he moves his frozen feet from a small snow drift into the damp puddle that is the floor around the chair.

Leaning forward he gently brushes off the layer of snow from the controls. Pushing a random button does nothing.  The joy stick is frozen in place and Steve fiddles with the radio, not hoping for much. The dial is stiff but after he blows a few gentle puffs of hot air and a little elbow grease it begins to turn. Steve sends up a prayer and slowly rotates the dial, listening to the faint buzz of static.

Nothing.

He falls back into the chair dejected.

He has no way of contacting anyone. Everything that isn’t frozen over looks to be broken from his fight with Red Skull. He really is lucky he hasn’t got frostbite yet. The uniform apparently did its job and retained enough of his body heat. Steve makes a mental note to thank Howard Stark when he gets back to camp. The suit may have helped save his life.

His finds his shield across the cockpit from where he woke up.

It’s mostly buried under a pile of snow but a few minutes is all it takes to pull it free. The leather straps are stiff with ice but there is nothing he can do about that. Just the comfort of having his shield again helps. At least he has something with him that will help while he waits. Or if he comes across more people it’s a symbol that is easily recognizable and possibly a ticket to help him get ahold of the Army faster.  


Looking out of the window doesn’t give Steve much help figuring out where he crashed. The landscape is bright white going as far as he can see. There are some trees in the distance.

Should he continue to wait here in the crashed plane for help? The plane at least would provide some shelter from the elements. But he wouldn’t have any food or heat to speak of. The woods might have both of those but shelter would be the problem there.

Steve weighed the options.

It looked like he had hours until the sunset and even not feeling his best he thought he could make it to the woods before then. He’d go scout the area out. Look for food and firewood. He had a knife still in his pack that would be useful for both tasks.

Shrugging the stiff straps of his shield up higher, he sets off.

**Author's Note:**

> The original prompt:  
> [Steve thaws out before anyone can find him, Fugitive!Steve, Steve/Tony](http://capkink.livejournal.com/810.html?thread=738602#t738602)
> 
> What if Steve thawed out in the twenty-first century but there was no one around to help him acclimate. Wondering from desolate northern outpost to desolate northern outpost, only leaving traces of a rumor of his presence there, he becomes increasingly disturbed by the increasingly modern towns and then cities he finds. When S.H.I.E.L.D. manages to track him down, he's paranoid it's a ploy of a HYDRA-type organization and takes a stand against them when they finally encounter one another. It's Tony of all people, who reminds him of Howard and Bucky and a past time where he felt safe, who calms him by gently saying, "At ease, soldier." He all but collapses after months of running.
> 
> TL;DR version: Steve is thawed out before the gov't finds him. He travels around North America until he has a confrontation with S.H.I.E.L.D. Tony says Nick Fury's line, "At ease, soldier," and just like that, Steve stops running.


End file.
